Foundling
by Saoirse-Inti
Summary: The matron always tells him he's a foundling. He's not sure what that means, exactly. All the other orphans lost their parents to war, famine or illness. Their nightstands are filled with photographs, their hearts filled with names and love. Sakumo doesn't know what to think- he has no photographs or names and holds very little love in his heart.
1. Heart

**Chapter 1. Heart**

* * *

><p><strong>Age 5.<strong>

The matron always tells him he's a foundling.

She's a kindly woman, rose-cheeked and chubby around the waist. To the children in the orphanage, she's the closest thing to a mother they have.

Sakumo isn't sure what a foundling is. Matron's explained it to him, but it seems to make so little sense. All the other orphans lost their parents to war, famine or illness. Their nightstands are filled with photographs, their hearts filled with names and love.

Sakumo doesn't know what to think- he has no photographs or names. All he knows is that they left him one day and never came back. He holds very little love in his heart.

When the potential foster parents come to look at them, his lips curve into a smile but his eyes do not.

He's a cute kid, with hair like a thundercloud and large, dark eyes. Matron doesn't understand why no one picks him. One day he overhears her as she asks someone- they say his eyes are too empty.

He isn't sure what that means, either.

xXx

Sakumo isn't really that different from the other children, he thinks. He likes to play tag or hide and seek. The latter is his favourite, because he always wins. It's so easy to him- each child has a scent of their own, so all he has to do is close his eyes and stick his nose up in the air. No one else plays it that way, which seems strange to him. It's not until later that he learns they can't.

They introduce him to a woman named Inuzuka Tomoko. She's a woman in her sixties, all the way from Konoha. She brings a pair of old dogs, their coats matted from the journey. Her eyes are sad, just like Sakumo's. Perhaps that's why he likes her. She visits him almost every day and always brings one of her dogs. He loves their fur and smell, and most of all, their eyes; he's never seen such lively ones.

One day they sting his arm with a needle and draw blood. He's not sure why. Tomoko has a band-aid on her arm, just like his own. He asks her why and she bursts into tears.

She tells him she had a son once; a strong, young man who could find anyone by smell, no matter where they were. He disappeared five years ago and not even the Inuzuka could find him again.

She tells Sakumo she's not his grandmother, but she'd kind of hoped she was.

He doesn't understand what it has to do with the blood, but she says it was the only way to find out. She doesn't stop crying, but she does stop visiting him.

xXx

The next visitor comes in the form of a ninja. Sakumo can tell by the way Matron tenses when he enters the building. The shinobi towers over her, all wide shoulders and sharp eyes. His hair is dark and spiky, and there's an x-shaped scar on his chin. Sakumo blinks at him owlishly, more curious than afraid.

The strange man makes all the orphans hold a small green leaf. He tells them all to press the leaf to their foreheads and focus with all their might on that exact spot.

Sakumo closes his eyes and does as he is told.

After almost five minutes of focusing, the man tells them to take their hands away. Some of the children laugh at the weird ritual and bend down to pick up their fallen leaves.

Sakumo doesn't open his eyes. His hands are at his sides, but the leaf is still clinging to his skin.

The man smiles and points at him. "That one." He says.

Matron sighs sadly and nods.

xXx

Konohagakure is much larger than the village Sakumo grew up in. The gates loom over them, even taller than the tall shinobi. His name is Danzou, he explains, and he is going to turn Sakumo into a shinobi.

Sakumo knows what shinobi are, of course. Ninjas are the first thing on any child's mind when someone says 'hero'. So he smiles and nods and feels like finally, he may be going home. He reaches out and grabs Danzou's hand. It's much larger than matron's, the skin dry and calloused where matron's had always been sticky and wet. But it's warm, and although Danzou's eyes widen in surprise, he doesn't let go until they're inside the village gates.

xXx

* * *

><p>xXx<p>

**Snow Country, Six Years Ago.**

The snow crunches beneath Sayuri's boots as she walks towards the small cave. Its entrance would not have stood out against the darkness of the night, were it not for the glow of the campfire. She stops momentarily, cold blue eyes fixed on it. She hesitates for a moment, then steps forward.

Inside the cave the temperature is much better- the wind is reduced to a distant howl, and snow and wind no longer reach her here. She takes her fur-lined hood down and shakes her head, freeing her silver hair from its confines. The snow-glasses come down next, and then her snow-covered overcoat. She tosses the last two in the corner.

A quick look to the other side of the campfire confirms that her prisoner is still unconscious. She drops the freshly killed snow hare next to the fire, then slumps down next to it. The heat of the fire instantly warms her chilled bones. The hare had been a tricky kill, its agility and sure-footedness in the thick snow providing a real challenge for the kunoichi. The smell of blood still clings to its carcass- it'll make a fine meal. Sayuri pulls a knife from her fur boot and grabs the rabbit to skin it.

The man stirs. Sayuri's fingers clench around the blade's handle, eyes flicking over to him. He groans and his eyes blink open. In the orange light she can't tell their exact colour- just that they are dark.

"What-" He groans again and pushes himself up on an elbow.

"Where am I?" He croaks.

Sayuri looks back down at her rabbit and continues skinning it. His first response is tranquil- that was good, but she'll keep an eye out.

"Land of Snow," She replies curtly.

"I- I know that. Where's- Where in the Land of Snow?" He pushes himself up further. The metal plate on his headband glints in the light. She'd seen it earlier- he is a Konoha shinobi.

"This cave." She says

"Well, aren't you a talkative one," He drawls. He rolls onto his back with a sigh.

She looks back at him, quietly staring him down. He was unusual. Captured by a strange shinobi, yet his response is not to attack her?

"I can sense your chakra," He says, as though reading her mind. "And I recognize your face. You're that Shirogane Sayuri, aren't you? I saw you in the Bingo book,"

She grimaces. Even in Konoha? Kumogakure was becoming desperate.

"Then why are you here, if not to hunt me down?" She snaps at him.

"Ah- serendipity," He smiles. "A chance meeting, if you will,"

"Just tell me already,"

A sigh. "Mission, of course. Nothing to do with you,"

She recognizes a lie when she hears one.

"Yet so ill-prepared. If not for me, you'd have frozen to death," She snaps, pulling the last of the skin off of the hare. She guts it quickly and pulls out its innards. She feels the slightest hint of satisfaction at his disgusted grimace.

"Is that why my wrists are bound?" He grins rakishly.

"I saw your headband. Couldn't take any chances."

"Makes sense. My name is-"

"I didn't ask you for your name."

"Yet I want to give it to you." Another grin.

What a pig. "How generous,"

"Sheer Konoha charm, m'lady,"

"Shut up."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

**I've been meaning to write about Sakumo for ages now. He's always been a favourite of mine; even with what little we know of him, he strikes me as an intriguing character. I hope to explore his character and family history in this story. Expect drabble-style chapters about several different phases in his life.**

**For reference, I imagine Sakumo is roughly 5 years older than the Sannin. That would make him roughly 28 when his son is born.**

**As for the section about Sayuri and the Konoha man; all will be explained.**

**I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review if you did, I'd really appreciate it.**


	2. Konoha

**Chapter 2. Konoha**

* * *

><p><strong>Age 9<strong>

xXx

Konohagakure is so much larger than the village Sakumo grew up in. He hasn't seen Danzou-san once in a span of four years. To Sakumo's young mind it seems almost impossible for two people to never run into one another, but this village is filled with too many streets and buildings for him to count.

He spends his days running through them, letting his nose lead him. With so many people, there are thousands of smells- and he wants to learn them all. The market smells best with its many different types of food, though on warm days the stall vendors reek of sweat. The Hyuuga compound smells of mint and tea when he passes it, the civilian district a myriad of smells, the Uchiha district of freshly baked bread and charred fish.

(He avoids the Yamanaka shop- the one time he went in he almost threw up from the overwhelmingly sweet stench, though the friendly cashier's smile was almost enough to make him go back.)

One day he strolls over the market when he smells a familiar mixture of dog and leather. He chases the smell through the village and finds himself standing in front of the Inuzuka compound. He remembers Inuzuka Tomoko and feels an odd ache in his chest.

He turns away quickly.

He visits the compound several times that week, but never dares to go in. On the day he decides not to return, a hand on his shoulder stops him. He turns to see a young girl of perhaps thirteen with wild dark hair and eyes, and the same tattoos on her cheeks that Tomoko had.

She smiles at him. "Where are you going, kid? Wouldn't you like to come in? You've been standing outside for far too long,"

Her name is Ran. She smells of dog food and leather, and he thinks that, perhaps, he's found his first friend.

xXx

The academy teaches Sakumo to write things other than his name. He finds he enjoys the experience of setting strokes on paper- ink transformed into meaning has its own brand of magic. He writes slowly, but when he does not even the other children can break him out of his concentration.

In his too-big and too-quiet apartment, Sakumo sits down and reads the books his teacher gives him. He reads almost non-stop, pausing only to visit the Inuzuka girl or go back to class. In class he has no friends. He desires to learn _more and more,_ but his peers only seem interested in playing. Sakumo wonders why one would play tag if there is the possibility of diving into books that can transport you to _different worlds_.

Ran laughs when he tells her about it, but she doesn't joke or judge. Instead she takes him out to the bookshop and buys him a book- it smells like nothing he's ever smelt before, and he touches its cover almost reverently. He's never felt quite so grateful in his life. When they say goodbye again, he accidentally calls her 'Ran-nee-san'. She grins and the next time they see each other, he is suddenly 'Little brother'. It's the best thing anyone's ever said to him.

He doesn't think about his parents much these days. Ran is family, now.

xXx

The next time he sees Shimura Danzou, Sakumo has just tied a brand new forehead protector around his skull. All the graduates stand in a row as the jounin senseis list off their names and divide them in teams.

Much to his surprise, Sakumo graduates at the top of the class. There's some envious muttering when their academy teacher praises Sakumo for his diligence and talent, but a few of the children smile and congratulate him instead.

Shimura Danzou looks satisfied too, and in a way that makes Sakumo feel proud of himself. Danzou was the man who'd taken him here, after all.

A moment later, the reason for Danzou's satisfaction is revealed when Sakumo's name is said alongside his in a single breath- they will be teacher and student. Sakumo is so delighted by it he doesn't even hear the names of his teammates.

xXx

Like most Shinobi related business, genin life is a breeze for Sakumo. His teammates are an Uchiha girl named Michiyo and a blonde haired boy who goes by Ibara Natsume. Neither of them like Sakumo very much, but they put up with him and watch his back, so he doesn't mind.

Danzou is a tough teacher and drills them all relentlessly. He devices clever traps to try and trick them and doesn't go easy on them in fights. They're nine years old but they come home from training with bruises all over their bodies.

But that's okay, because his friend-sister Ran says some of the other kids go out on missions and don't come back at all.

xXx

On their first mission out of the village, Ibara Natsume almost dies and Uchiha Michiyo returns home with eyes that blaze scarlet.

They look at Sakumo differently now. After all, he was the one who killed the enemy shinobi in the end. They smile and wave when they go their separate ways in the village, Natsume a little stiffly, Michiyo with much abundance and pride.

Danzou-sensei congratulates him on a job well done and disappears into the shadows again, as he is wont to do.

Sakumo stays and watches as they go back to their homes and families. Then he goes back to his empty-quiet apartment and cries for the first time in his life, remembering panicked eyes and the overwhelmingly filthy smell of blood. He pulls his duvet around him and dreams the warm heavy cloth curled around him is an embrace.

xXx

* * *

><p>xXx<p>

**Land of Snow, 10 Years Ago**

"Why did you keep me alive?" The Konoha shinobi asks that night.

Sayuri bites into her part of the hare. The meat is juicy and blessedly hot, warming her throat and stomach as she swallows it down.

She thinks of her little brother, lips blue when she'd found him.

"Just eat, would you?"


	3. Kind

**Chapter 3. Kind.**

* * *

><p><strong>Age 10<strong>

Sakumo is ten years old when the second Hokage is killed in an ambush. It's one of those times where everyone who was alive at the time will remember where they were when they first heard about it. Tobirama Senju had not been a young man anymore, but he'd still been strong- certainly no one in the village could match him.

Sarutobi Hiruzen returns to Konoha wide-eyed and just a little bit stunned, Tobirama's seal of succession clenched in pale-knuckled fists. Shimura Danzou comes home with a bitter sneer on his face that will remain there until the day he dies.

He becomes an even harsher teacher, too. He pitches his students against each other, even when Natsume can no longer keep up with his teammates. Michiyo is quick and deadly, three _tomoe_ spinning in each sharingan, and deadly fire ninjutsu to back it up. And Sakumo..

It's around this time that Sakumo figures he might me something of a prodigy.

He's only been learning ninjutsu for three years, but he can already call upon lightning without handseals. It's as much a part of him as the colour of his hair.

He outpaces even Michiyo with her quick eyes and hands. He runs circles around the few bandits they encounter on missions and paralyzes them with his chakra before they even know he's there.

Danzou-sensei explains those with lightning-natured chakra tend to be naturally fast, just as wind users are naturally agile and earth users filled with endurance.

The only real problem is that his body is small and thin compared to theirs. So Danzou-sensei gives him a _tanto_ and says

"This will help."

xXx

The next day, Sakumo is told to show up at the training grounds outside of their regular hours. He is asked to bring his tanto and does so obediently.

Danzou-sensei doesn't show up, but a strange man with a few days' worth of stubble and black hair pulled into a ponytail does. He's carrying a katana on his back and roughly explains he'll be Sakumo's new teacher.

His name is Karasu, and he breaks Sakumo's brand new _tanto_ into a thousand pieces with the first blow they exchange.

xXx

"You know what your problem is?" Uchiha Michiyo says scathingly. "You're just too damn nice for your own good,"

Sakumo shrugs a little. His head is still throbbing from the blow to his head, and his arms are being swathed in bandages by a medic.

"You could have easily made champion in this tournament, y'know," His Uchiha friend continues. "If you'd just struck that guy doesn't even deserve being made chuunin, and everyone knows it."

Sakumo doesn't really care either way. He remembers the feel of flesh underneath his tanto, and remembers his opponents frightened eyes.

It's one thing to hurt a stranger from a strange place, but to hurt a child who has grown up in the same streets as him is entirely different. Michiyo is right. It would have been easy to win the tournament. It's just that Sakumo hadn't _wanted to._

Michiyo stands up abruptly and bows at the waist. "Hokage-sama!" She squeaks, and Sarutobi Hiruzen enters the building.

He asks Michiyo to leave and sits on the edge of Sakumo's bed. He is a small, slight man in his early twenties, with a friendly face and warm eyes. Not at all as Sakumo had imagined when he'd first heard of the so-called _God of Shinobi_.

Sarutobi give him a gentle smile and ruffles Sakumo's stormcloud hair.

"You did good, you know. No matter what they say." He says.

Sakumo blinks and wants to ask _why_, but he stops at the last moment. Sarutobi's face is illuminated by the sunlight filtering through the window, highlighting premature wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. He is the kind of man who laughs a lot, and Sakumo cannot help but think that that alone is why people should follow him.

"For a shinobi, strength is everything." Sarutobi says. "But you know what? Kindness is a strength, too."

He pulls a chuunin vest from behind his back and hands it to Sakumo. "Congratulations, Chuunin-san," He says, and leaves again.

Sakumo's grin threatens to split his face apart.

xXx

Karasu pulls up his nose when Sakumo gushes to him about Sandaime's words.

"I believed that once," He grunts. "But life taught me differently,"

xXx

* * *

><p>xXx<p>

**Eleven years ago**

Her knife cuts through his bindings effortlessly.

He smiles and she tenses, expecting an attack.

"Thank you," He says instead. "I appreciate it. My hands were starting to feel numb,"

She looks at him for a moment. He has a lop-sided smile and dimples in his cheeks. There's a few days' worth of dark stubble there, too.

"Just go," She says.


	4. Love

**Chapter 4. Love**

* * *

><p><strong>Age 14.<strong>

Sakumo is fourteen, and he's never been this popular before. He's a handsome teenager with dark eyes and hair like moonlight, an easy smile and a pleasantly deep voice. The girls think he's _fantastic. _

But Inuzuka Ran still calls him _geek_ and _dork _and Michiyo pretends to vomit when someone mistakes him for her boyfriend, so in the end nothing really changes.

xXx

Michiyo and Natsume are chuunins like Sakumo, so when the Second Great Shinobi War breaks out the three of them are deployed. Danzou-sensei hasn't shown himself to them since their promotions, but they occasionally hear his name mentioned by other chunin. Sakumo isn't sure why, but it's always accompanied by a sneer.

Sakumo is injured in the very first week at the frontlines and wakes up bathing in cold sweat two weeks later, only to hear the chunin he was trying to protect was not as lucky as him. He looks at his brand new scars and wonders what the point of them is, if he got them protecting someone who was already dead. Ran, who is there as well, gives him a weary smile and tells him that at least he tried. It's not enough.

Karasu-sensei shows up a few weeks later. His katana is covered in blood and his face is colder than Sakumo has ever seen it before. He beckons Sakumo in the middle of battle and leads him on a long and exhausting charge into enemy lines. Sakumo follows his teacher's example as well as he can, _tanto_ swinging left and right as though he was hacking his way through thick vines. He tries to forget it's people, instead.

At some point he sees a Kumo shinobi channelling chakra through his blade. Two days later, Sakumo has worked out how to do it himself. Now his blade glows white as he enters the fields and opponents are starting to keep away.

xXx

His platoon gets permission to visit a nearby town not long afterwards. There's a festival going on, and all the shinobi make an effort to wear their nicest clothes. Some of them end up going in their spare uniforms, the only outfits not tarnished with blood. Sakumo himself ends up in someone's old (and oversized) nightshirt and his uniform's pants. He looks like an idiot, but he doesn't care.

Michiyo has borrowed a dress and looks much prettier than he remembers her to be. She looks for Sakumo and just as they've found each other, a teenage couple comes by snogging each other senseless.

There's an awkward moment and an even more awkward kiss behind the dango stall, after which Sakumo and Michiyo both decide to never try again because _wow_, who'd have thought it'd be that slimy?

Sakumo smiles as she searches for their blond teammate, and makes his way up onto a roof. He watches the festival goers and marvels at their careless joy when a war is going on only a few miles from here. He touches a hand to his lips and decides not to fall in love.

A few weeks later he watches one of the older jounin's break apart when she's told her husband has been killed, and thinks he's made a good decision.

Ran shakes her head when he explains it to her, and says that you can't choose who you love. Sakumo disagrees; he loves Michiyo and Natsume and Ran and Danzou-sensei because he wants to, not because they overwhelmed him with their virtues. He gives Ran a sceptical look and she just sighs.

Karasu-sensei gives him a weary look and tells him it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard. Sakumo doesn't love Karasu-sensei.

xXx

**Age 15**

He's fifteen years old and Ran's blood is all over him. She's nineteen and called the most talented Inuzuka of her generation, but her dog companion lies slain at her feet and there's a katana through her chest. Sakumo chokes on a sob and asks her not to go.

His sister frowns a little and shakes her head, and tells him not to be so stupid about love.

Behind him, Danzo sighs and tells him to 'come along already, she's done for anyway,' and it's the first moment he suspects he might not love Danzo-sensei, after all.

Karasu appears as he always does when Sakumo needs him, and together they sit and watch as the light leaves Ran's eyes. Karasu places a heavy hand on his shoulders as he grieves, and awkwardly tells him that it'll be alright. But it won't be, because Sakumo's sister has just died and now they have to dispose her body because they're in enemy territory.

And yet.. He thinks perhaps Ran was right about love when Karasu-sensei awkwardly proposes to stay behind and bury her for him. He shakes his head, because as much as he doesn't want to love Ran right now to make the pain go away, he can't. He loves her even when they activate the _katon _jutsu that destroys her body.

xXx

**Sixteen years ago**

"You know," He says on the third day of their acquaintance. "I probably couldn't have killed you anyway,"

She jumps up, startled. She thought she'd lost him in the ice canyons.

He smiles that lop-sided smile of his and taps his nose. "My nose is better than any dog's," he says.

Her eyes widen. Konoha's tracking squads are well known- and deservedly feared. "Even out in the snow?" She asks.

"Especially in the snow. You're the only other human around for miles and miles," He sighs and sits next to her. "You're not getting rid of me so easily."

She sighs, too.


End file.
